Goethe University Frankfurt

Master of Arts in Archaeology of Coinage, Money and the Economy in the Ancient World

The MA-program ‘Archaeology of coinage, money and the economy in the ancient world’ concentrates on two important institutions that came to play a decisive role in the Graeco-Roman world and its border zones, and whose available technical and analytical possibilities have a very high knowledge potential. The economy is understood as the sum of the goods and services which were created in answer to the needs of people, affecting the basis of life and co-existence in every community. Within this money was embedded.

This could take the form of a great variety of goods, which functioned as a standard of value, a medium of exchange, a medium of payment and a medium which could be hoarded. The time period of the program is bounded by the adoption of coinage in c. 600 BC and the end of the western Roman Empire shortly before AD 500. The sources examined in the program are archaeological features and material cultures like coins, ceramics, and objects of metal and stone, as well as literary evidence.

This takes the form of the textual corpus of ancient authors, inscriptions on stone and bronze, as well as cursive inscriptions on various materials. Important are the broader societal structures and state institutions of the ancient world, as well as its mentalities, technical potential, and infrastructure.

Also important is data that points to the conditions of the natural landscape, the findings of modern archaeometric analyses, as well as contributions from archaeobotany and archaeozoology. From this basis, the economy and the use and functions of money and coinage will be traced as comprehensively as possible within the above mentioned geographical region and time period.

A degree in ‘Archaeology of coinage, money and the economy in the ancient world’ provides students with the ability to deal with the existing sources in an independent, theoretically grounded and methodologically appropriate manner, and to critically assess and classify individual source genres. Remarkable about this program is the combination of archaeology, economic archaeology, economic history, numismatics, the history of money, and Archaeometry, all of which are focused on state and society in antiquity.

The goals of the MA-program are 1) to solidify and enlarge the knowledge of the archaeology of coins, money and the economy in the ancient world acquired during the BA-program, 2) to further develop the skills of independent and critical thinking and reasoning 3) to train time-management and efficient organization of research.

Mode of admission

Admission is not restricted. Students will be directly admitted if the admission requirements are met in full.